3 ms·

The diminishing returns of in-office mandates

20 points by jethronethro 2y ago

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
ghaff 2y ago
I mean it makes sense. If you assume there are some benefits to periodic face to face time, it stands to reason that some level of coordinated getting together in person is probably useful but scaling it to five days every week often won't scale linearly.
RadiozRadioz 2y ago
I used to work at a small company. We had a WeWork membership, I hated going into the office. I used a laptop, the coffee was bad, my back hurt. I much preferred to work from home in my nice chair with my nice keyboard. I then moved to a big company with a nice office. I have 3 4K screens, a faster computer than anything I owned, gigabit internet, Aeron chair, free breakfast & lunch, great coffee, spacious attractive meeting rooms, everything is cleaned, collaboration is effortless. I much prefer working in the office to working at home. All this stuff varies too much to make a proper judgment. Some people have kids and want to be at home, others have kids and want to be away from the distraction. I don't think we should mandate either way, I think we should be flexible and mature.
- ghaff 2y ago
  Certainly. There are people who want to go into the office every day. There are people who would be happy never to go into the office or attend an off-site, and everything in between for reasons good and bad.
sevensor 2y ago
Pre-covid open plan offices had their problems. I sat elbow-to-elbow with a guy who always had Youtube bowling videos running on his spare monitor on one side, and a junior engineer who had questions for me all the time on the other side. I say this without any rose-tinted nostalgia: it was way better than the post-covid office. Same space, but despite being half-deserted it is still too small for everybody to be on Teams calls at the same time, eight hours a day. I miss the conviviality of in-office culture, but pre-covid decisions about what constitutes an appropriate office space have made post-covid office work untenable.
blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
In-office mandates are also just bad for countries. It’s better that people spread out rather than crowding into dense urban areas. Or at least, they can have choice in where and how they live while still having economic opportunity. It will also reduce emissions, improve health outcomes, improve how children are raised, and a whole lot more. Companies that mandate a return to office for jobs where it is avoidable should be taxed heavily to offset those other side effects.

20 points by jethronethro 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

I mean it makes sense. If you assume there are some benefits to periodic face to face time, it stands to reason that some level of coordinated getting together in person is probably useful but scaling it to five days every week often won't scale linearly.

RadiozRadioz 2y ago

I used to work at a small company. We had a WeWork membership, I hated going into the office. I used a laptop, the coffee was bad, my back hurt. I much preferred to work from home in my nice chair with my nice keyboard. I then moved to a big company with a nice office. I have 3 4K screens, a faster computer than anything I owned, gigabit internet, Aeron chair, free breakfast & lunch, great coffee, spacious attractive meeting rooms, everything is cleaned, collaboration is effortless. I much prefer working in the office to working at home. All this stuff varies too much to make a proper judgment. Some people have kids and want to be at home, others have kids and want to be away from the distraction. I don't think we should mandate either way, I think we should be flexible and mature.

ghaff 2y ago
Certainly. There are people who want to go into the office every day. There are people who would be happy never to go into the office or attend an off-site, and everything in between for reasons good and bad.

sevensor 2y ago

Pre-covid open plan offices had their problems. I sat elbow-to-elbow with a guy who always had Youtube bowling videos running on his spare monitor on one side, and a junior engineer who had questions for me all the time on the other side. I say this without any rose-tinted nostalgia: it was way better than the post-covid office. Same space, but despite being half-deserted it is still too small for everybody to be on Teams calls at the same time, eight hours a day. I miss the conviviality of in-office culture, but pre-covid decisions about what constitutes an appropriate office space have made post-covid office work untenable.

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago

In-office mandates are also just bad for countries. It’s better that people spread out rather than crowding into dense urban areas. Or at least, they can have choice in where and how they live while still having economic opportunity. It will also reduce emissions, improve health outcomes, improve how children are raised, and a whole lot more. Companies that mandate a return to office for jobs where it is avoidable should be taxed heavily to offset those other side effects.